CIVIL WAR IN' SPAIN'



    The South American colonies had now in great part se-
cured independence. Spain was thereby robbed of her best
resources. As financial distress became more widespread,
the spirit of discontent rose. The King's plottings with the
extreme Royalists of France lost him the confidence of his
subjects. In the south the triumphant party of the so-called
Exaltados refused obedience to the central administration.
The municipal governments of Cadiz, Cartagena, and Sev-
ille took the tone of independent republics. In the north
the party of the Serviles, instigated by French agitators and
their money, broke into open rebellion. After the adjourn-
ment of the Cortes, Ferdinand attempted to make a stroke
for himself. The Royal Guards were ordered to march from
Aranjuez to Madrid to place themselves under the King's
personal command. The people took alarm, and several regi-
ments of disaffected soldiers were induced to head off the
guards.  A fight ensued in the streets of Madrid.  The
guards were scattered. The King found himself a prisoner
in his own palace. He wrote to Louis XVIII that his crown
was in peril. The Bourbon sympathizers in the north at once
seized the town of Seo d'Urgel, and set up a provisional gov-
ernment. Civil war spread over Spain. Napoleon's final
prophecy that Bourbon rule would end in the ruin of Spain
and the loss of all the best colonies was near fulfilment. It
was then that the continental Powers of Europe proposed
to interfere on behalf of the Spanish m-nonarchy. The death
of old Minister Hardenberg in Berlin did not loosen Metter-
nich's hold on Prussia. Emperor Alexander hoped to con-
ciliate his army, burning to fall uipoii the Turk, by treating
them to a light campaign in Spain. In France the Spanish
war party likewise had the upper hand.
   Nothing could save Spain; but Spanish South and Cen-
tral America presented another issue. The new republics had
developed a thriving trade with Great Britain and the Unlited
                          437



1822